JLL Brokers $130M MetLife Loan for Two Philly Towers

CBREI, an investment management affiliate of CBRE, closed the purchase of two Philadelphia office assets with $130 million from MetLife, Commercial Observer has learned.

The two Class A office towers, located in the Center City neighborhood, were purchased for about $200 million. The two floating-rate loans totaling $130 million from MetLife, brokered by JLL, allowed CBREI to complete the purchase.

United Plaza is a 620,000-square-foot, 20-story office property; 1650 Arch Street is a 560,000-square-foot, 27-story asset.

Managing Directors Doug Rodio and James Galbally and Vice President John Plower led the JLL team on the sales transactions and worked with Managing Director Dustin Stolly and Vice President Aaron Niedermayer, who handled the debt side of the deal.

“With rents on the rise, it’s a great time to acquire two of the [Philadelphia Central Business District’s] premier Class A office assets,” said Mr. Rodio in a prepared statement provided exclusively to Commercial Observer.

Indeed, the Central Business District’s overall vacancy fell from 12.7 percent in the first quarter of 2014 to 11.9 percent in the same period this year, according to the most recently available numbers from Cushman & Wakefield.

The improving numbers made the debt aspect of the deal appealing as well, said Mr. Stolly.

“Vacancy rates have been declining significantly in the Market Street West submarket over the past few months and those numbers, along with the properties’ best-in-class location, made these extremely compelling for the lending community,” he said in the remarks.